THE BRITISH Summer may have been unpredictable, but that hasn’t stopped creative students from Exeter College making the most of it, rain or shine.

Those photographed are among 51 in total from the College’s Centre for Creative Industries (CCI) who entered the Deckchair Project competition, organised by the College in conjunction with Exeter’s Habitat store in Queen Street.

As part of the first-year of their course working towards their National Diploma in Art and Design, students study a range of specialist areas, including Photography, Graphics, Fine Art, Life Drawing, Contextual Studies, and Print and Textiles, in order to identify their own particular areas of strength and interests before taking them forward into their second-year to develop further.

The Deckchair Project was incorporated into their Print and Textiles studies this year with the aim of allowing students to develop their skills in designing and producing fabric prints using a variety of screen-printing methods, as well as gaining an understanding of professional practice in this field.

The overall winner (pictured centre with her winning Deckchair Project design) was Amber Doran, aged 19, of Bridport, Dorset.

The runners-up were Felix Howitt, aged 19, of Exeter, Evalynn Wills, aged 16, of Exeter, and Emma Harris, aged 17, of Tiverton. Additionally, Emma is soon to have a selection of her photography work displayed at another Queen Street venue, the fashionable Juice Moose café.

Their tutor, Helen Burak, says: “I devised the project and then introduced the idea to Habitat management in Exeter who were very keen to support it from the beginning.”

In fact, the management at Habitat were so delighted with the results that, in addition to having displayed the winning deckchair in front of the store for several days this summer, they are now in talks with Habitat’s buying team, who have expressed an interest in seeing the finalists’ work for themselves.

“Consequently, the students are extremely excited,” says Helen, adding: “The students embraced the project really enthusiastically from the outset and many mastered quite difficult screen-printing processes to achieve such excellent results.”

She continues: “They gave Habitat staff a difficult task when it came to selecting their favourites, but in the end the winning designs were chosen for their strong design concepts, demonstration of professional printing and presentation skills, and their commercial viability. They serve as a superb example of the many talented Art and Design students we have studying with us here at Exeter College.”